Interaction of Dirac and Majorana neutrinos with weak gravitational fields

Abstract

In this paper the interaction of high energy neutrinos with weak gravitational fields is briefly explored. The form of the graviton-neutrino vertex is motivated from Lorentz and gauge invariance and the nonrelativistic interpretations of the neutrino-gravitational form factors are obtained. We comment on the renormalization conditions, the preservation of the weak equivalence principle and the definition of the neutrino mass radius. We associate the neutrino-gravitational form factors with specific angular momentum states. Based on Feynman diagrams, spin-statistics, $CP$ invariance and symmetries of the angular momentum states in the graviton-neutrino vertex, we deduce differences between the Majorana and Dirac cases. It is then proved that in spite of the theoretical differences between the two cases, as far as experiments are considered, they would be virtually indistinguishable for any space-time geometry satisfying the weak-field condition. We then calculate the transition gravitational form factors for the neutrino by evaluating the relevant Feynman diagrams at 1-loop and estimate a neutrino transition mass radius. The form factor is seen to depend on the momentum transfer very weakly. It is also seen that the neutrino transition mass radius is smaller than the typical neutrino charge radius by a couple of orders of magnitude.